Since March 2026
Six months, start to here.
Xtragate is six months old. It was founded with a signed term contract, a manufacturer’s order book, nineteen people and a rule we have never broken: we do not buy other people’s worn-out iron.
Timeline
Six months, month by month
Incorporated in Midland, Texas
Xtragate Oil, LLC is formed on 14 March by three toolpushers with sixty years between them. Nineteen people, no rigs, and a signed letter of intent from a private Permian operator that made the order book financeable.
The order, not the auction
Four AC-electric pad rigs are ordered new against the term contract instead of buying a distressed fleet at half the price. It is the decision the whole company is built on and the one that nearly did not survive the first board discussion.
First spud
Rig 1 is accepted from the manufacturer and spuds a vertical Permian test in Glasscock County. It takes twenty-six days and loses money. Rigs 2 to 4 follow within the month.
Delaware district and the marine division
The second Permian district opens. Two platform supply vessels are delivered new from a Gulf Coast yard rather than chartered, on the argument that a late boat idles a rig the operator is paying for anyway.
Eagle Ford and Part 135
South Texas district opens with three rigs and a district yard. The aviation division takes delivery of its first Bell aircraft and is certified under FAA Part 135. Crew change stops being somebody else’s problem.
Stop-work authority
Unconditional stop-work authority is written into every contract and every induction: any person on any location can stop any job for any safety concern, with no requirement to be right. It has been used eleven times since and no one has been disciplined.
Offshore
The offshore division stands up and the first two cantilever jackups are accepted and mobilised to the Gulf shelf. Bakken winterised packages mobilise the same month.
Deepwater, and eighteen rigs
Semi-submersibles Rig 17 and 18 are accepted new. The fleet reaches its planned shape: thirteen onshore, three jackups, two semis, twelve vessels, twelve aircraft. Water depth capability goes from zero to 7,400 feet inside a quarter.
Automation and hybrid power
Automated pipe handling begins a twelve-well trial and battery peak-shaving is fitted across the onshore fleet. Two of the five pipe-handling systems evaluated are rejected and never bought.
Ironmark XG-1 concept
The company publishes the Ironmark XG-1, a concept fifth-generation semi-submersible built around a thirty-two person core crew and a robotic drill floor. It is not sanctioned, not built and not for charter.
What has not changed
Still privately held. Still buying nothing used.
Xtragate has never taken outside equity and has never been listed. Every rig, vessel and aircraft in the fleet was specified by our own engineers and ordered new from the manufacturer. We have never bought a used unit and we have never bought another drilling contractor.
The consequence is that we answer to the operators we drill for and to nobody else, and we can turn down a programme we do not think we can execute safely without explaining ourselves to a market.
- Privately held since day one, no outside equity
- No acquisitions of other contractors
- Every unit bought new — no used rigs, vessels or aircraft, ever
- Work comes from operators we already drill for, not from public tenders
By the numbers
March to September 2026
How we take work.
Xtragate does not tender publicly and does not accept unsolicited enquiries. Programmes come to us through operators we already work for.